How to Motivate Call Center Agents

If you are wondering how to motivate call center agents, you’ve come to the right place. A successful call center is built on an energetic team of agents who are constantly striving to achieve better. When your agents are underappreciated, they are much less productive and willing to come into the office. Despite the grueling nature of customer service work, there are ways to reduce turnover rates and improve satisfaction in a call center. Targeting an agent’s motivation level is an excellent way to boost efficiency and overall workplace morale.

Keep reading to learn about four useful tricks you can implement to motivate your call center agents.

1.  Have the Right Resources and Technology Ready

If you want to motivate call centers agents, start by giving them the proper tools. With the right resources at their side, your agents will be able to do the best work they can. Ensure you have proper fitting headsets, dialers, desks, chairs, and technological software. The latter becomes particularly important when agents are forced to switch between multiple screens and find information between two windows. This is not only frustrating but disheartening. Avoid this scenario and implement a contact center software that links all the customer information together. Not only will this improve the speed of leads gained, but it will also create a positive work environment where people are able to communicate and collaborate.

By having the right tools and technology ready, you can dodge unneeded stress in your call center and boost team motivation. Nothing will drain an agent’s motivation more than outdated, slow technology. Figure out what tools are working for your agents and those that aren’t. This will reveal any areas that can be improved upon to boost agents’ motivation. Remove anything that is not improving productivity and consider what it could be replaced with. Keep up to date with technological advancements so you can keep your team engaged, excited, and most importantly, motivated.

2.  Implement Incentives & Prizes to Motivate Agents

Call center incentive programs are an excellent way to boost team performance and motivation. Incentive programs increase commitment and motivation from agents because they assign greater value to work tasks and goals. It allows them to seamlessly communicate with others towards a common goal and if they win, reap the rewards of their hard labor. An incentive can be just as simple as recognizing an agent who has exceeded expectations, reached a particular goal, or kept the team morale high. With regular incentives, you will see your agent’s ambition soar and productivity go through the roof.

It is important that you take time to think about what rewards you are going to use to boost your call center’s motivation. It’s always nice getting something with a personal touch, so offer that same feeling to your employees and offer rewards that are individualized. This could pertain to their favorite interests, values, or goals. Be cautious that the rewards are fair and reasonable, however, as this could skew motivation amongst the team. When done correctly, rewards help an agent connect with the task at hand and keep them motivated throughout the entire day. Some ideas for rewards include monetary bonuses, time-off, and, food or beverage vouchers.

3.  Organize Social Contests to Boost Communication

Motivating call center agents can be difficult when the team doesn’t know how to communicate with each other. Organizing social contests is a great way to encourage collaboration and cooperation between agents. It forces individuals to speak to other agents and open up the lines of communication, both in and out of the office. Social contests could be anything from in-house competitions, virtual trivia nights, team-shared lunches, and bowling nights to name a few.

When communication is low in a call center, it is very likely that bullying and gossiping may arise. In a toxic environment like this, agents will feel uncomfortable, underappreciated, and ignored, leading them to leave your office and never come back. To prevent this from happening, it’s a great idea to keep team morale high and encourage collaborative, positive communication. Social contests are the perfect place for this type of discord to occur. It allows healthy feedback to play out in a fun and safe context. It also allows cooperative competition to occur while fostering new relationships between agents. When agents come back into work, they will have a greater sense of meaning and purpose together as they channel their inner productivity and teamwork.

4.  Develop a Larger, Specific Goal For Your Team

Encouraging individuals to work together towards a bigger goal is a reliable way to motivate call center agents. You will need to develop specific goals with your agents so that every day they walk into the office, they know what they’re aiming for. This becomes especially important in call centers where the nature of the job can easily feel repetitive and boring. An effective goal is relevant, attainable, and measurable. If agents can see their progress, either in the form of a scale or chart, it will motivate them to keep performing. Take time to set long-term goals and then chunk them into realistic, short-term goals.

Some ideas for potential goals to mobilize your team into motivation mode could be a charity donation, team outing, or something for the office. It can be difficult in call centers to develop real connections with customers, given an agent may talk to thousands a day. Setting a team goal that enhances the team’s sense of meaning and purpose is a fantastic way to keep call center agents motivated. Consider making a donation to a charity of your choice. This will promote enthusiasm and ambition amongst your team, helping them to perform better and achieve bigger goals.

Conclusion

Implementing a call center incentive program is an excellent way of motivating your agents and boosting productivity in the office. Ensure your agents have the right resources and technology at their fingertips so they have everything they need to perform well. Incentives and personalized rewards are another fantastic way to motivate agents and create a more enjoyable work environment. Social contests are also great for boosting motivation, especially if teams are striving toward a larger, common goal. Check out Autopilot Reviews for more Call Center Incentive Ideas!